‘ADITYA-1’ is a proposal for the first Indian space based solar coronagraph intended to study the outermost region of the sun, called corona. The temperature of the solar corona goes beyond million degrees. From the ground, the corona could be seen only during total solar eclipses mainly due to the bright solar disc and the scattering of the sunlight by the Earth’s atmosphere. To mask the bright solar disc and study the corona, one has to go beyond the atmosphere.

The major scientific objectives of Aditya-1 mission are to achieve a fundamental understanding of the physical processes that heat the solar corona; accelerate the solar wind; and produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

The 20 cm coronagraph, having a field of view of corona from 1.05 R to 3.0 R, will use an off axis parabolic mirror. The payload will have three CCD detectors system with a capability of simultaneous imaging in 6374 Å, 5303 Å and in 5800 Å for continuum/broadband.